1 Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a battery unit which includes a storage battery disposed in a storage casing mounted in vehicles such as automobiles.
2 Background Art
Battery units are known which include a storage battery (also called an assembled battery module) equipped with a plurality of electrochemical cells and assembled along with a control board in the form of a battery unit. For instance, Japanese Patent First Publication No. 2011-216401 teaches such a type of battery unit. The battery units are also proposed to be mounted in automobiles with a water damage sensor (which is also called a submergence detection sensor). The water damage sensor is installed in the battery unit and works to detect whether the battery unit has been submerged in water or not, for example, in the case where the automobile is put in water. A controller such as a CPU fabricated on the control board analyzes an output from the water damage sensor to deactivate a charging/discharging operation of the assembled battery module.
The water damage sensor is connected electrically to the control board through flexible wire. Such connection is, however, complicated.